HOWARD DAWSON 1918-2007: Dawson compared to Abraham Lincoln

Former City Councilman Howard Dawson, a resident of Laguna Beach since 1966, Mr. died Sept. 20 at South Coast Medical Center. He was 89.

Dawson was active in the community and served on the City Council from 1978 to 1982, in the first terms of Kelly Boyd and Wayne Baglin.

“I enjoyed Howard immensely,” Boyd said. “He was an asset to the community. Some people called him conservative, but he thought everything out very well before he made a decision.

“He was my Abe Lincoln. I really looked up to him.”

Baglin, who resigned from the council in 1981 because of a professional relocation overseas, expressed both personal and political admiration for Mr. Dawson.

“While serving on the council with Howard, I found him to be intelligent, with a great sense of humor and an uncanny ability to bring up historical anecdotes,” Baglin said.

“When we [the Baglin family] went to Saudi Arabia, we had so much confidence in his integrity and ability that we left him in control of our investments. And he did very well for us.”

Dawson also served as the president of the Victoria Beach Homeowners Assn. from 1974 to 1976. He was a member of the Laguna Beach Republicans and helped found the Laguna Beach Taxpayers Assn.

“He is well-remembered and highly regarded by the members of the taxpayers,” President Martha Lydick said.

Howard Dutton Dawson was born July 8, 1918 in Spokane, Wash. He moved in 1921 to Los Angeles, where he rose in the Boy Scouts of America to the Eagle rank.

Dawson graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1935. He attended UCLA where he crewed for three years and pledged Theta Delta Chi and served as its president.

His post-graduate studies at the Stanford University School of Business were cut short by World War II. He left the university in 1941 and became a department manager for Lockheed until 1946.

Dawson then began his career as a stockbroker as a partner with Morgan & Co. He left the company in 1966 when he moved to Laguna and opened the Wagenseller & Durst office. Subsequently he joined Young, Smith & Peacock, then moved to Prime Financial in 1988.

He went independent in 1990 and retired in 2004.

Dawson is survived by his wife, Alice, daughter Susan, and daughters Claire and Barbara from his first marriage.

Dawson was a supporter of the Boy Scouts, the World Wildlife Fund, Trees for Life and South Coast Medical Center.

“Howard was a long-time supporter of the hospital and his wife, Alice, is a member of our Women’s Advisory Council,” said Councilwoman Elizabeth Schneider, executive director of the South Coast Medical Center Foundation, whom Dawson supported politically. “He was a quiet giver.”

A celebration of the life of Mr. Dawson will be at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Canyon Lodge at Ben Brown’s Golf Course.

Memorial donations in Dawson’s name may be made in care of McCormick & Son Mortuary, 1795 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, 92651.